Should Your Small Business Delete Its Social Media Accounts?

The announcement last week by Wetherspoons that they’d be closing all their social media accounts took many by surprise. Some questioned whether it was a stunt, some applauded the move as bold and progressive, and many have been taking a closer look at their businesses social media strategy, and questioning if their business needs to be on social media.

We’ll come right out and proclaim ourselves social media evangelists, but we’re also realists and understand that social media isn’t always the right fit for all businesses. Wetherspoons is one of those businesses. The chain has a loyal, local and older customer base, that wasn’t responding to the brand’s social media strategy. But what effect would deleting your small business’s social media presence have on your company? We take a look.

You’ll be stepping away from the conversation.
While social media is a busy, chaotic and at times a controversial space, it’s also a great place to converse directly with your audience or customers. Deleting your social media accounts takes away your mouthpiece and silences your business on an efficient communication channel. While your company may not be on social media, your customers still are, and they’ll be talking about your business both positively and negatively. Failing to respond to such interactions could have a negative impact on your overall brand perception.

You’ll be hidden from a huge potential audience.
There is an estimated 42 Million UK based users of social media. Which is a huge potential audience that you’ll be completely hidden from. Giving your competitors the perfect opportunity to swoop in and engage with your existing and potential customers. While you have no practical way to connect with them.

You’ll be reducing your brand’s potential reach.
Without a social media presence, your business will lack the reach that social media provides. Meaning you’ll have to pay to reach the audience that you could reach organically (for free) on social media. A lack of social media accounts may also affect your position in search results pages, making it doubly hard when it comes to connecting with new customers. While eventually, social media is heading towards pay-to-play for business, it makes little sense to turn away from the visibility, and exposure that organic reach can provide now.

So ultimately social media is a valuable tool for small and medium-sized businesses. Allowing any business to put themselves in front of an audience of millions, and engage directly with an enormous number of potential new customers and connect with their existing consumer base. Deleting your social media accounts may seem like a productive and back to basics move in the short term, but social media isn’t going anywhere, and entirely leaving could be costly and may do your business damage in the long run.